The present application relates to tissue retraction to facilitate a procedure, such as minimally invasive surgery, within a patient.
Traditional surgical procedures for pathologies located within the body can cause significant trauma to the intervening tissues. These procedures often require a long incision, extensive muscle stripping, prolonged retraction of tissues, denervation and devascularization of tissue. These procedures can require operating room time of several hours and several weeks of post-operative recovery time due to the destruction of tissue during the surgical procedure. In some cases, these invasive procedures lead to permanent scarring and pain that can be more severe than the pain leading to the surgical intervention.
The development of percutaneous procedures has yielded a major improvement in reducing recovery time and post-operative pain because minimal dissection of tissue, such as muscle tissue, is required. For example, minimally invasive surgical techniques are desirable for spinal and neurosurgical applications because of the need for access to locations within the body and the danger of damage to vital intervening tissues. In one form, access to locations within the body is provided by a working channel between oppositely positioned retractor blades. If necessary, the retractor blades can be moved relative to one another to adjust the size of the working channel. However, when the retractor blades are displaced away from one another to enlarge the working channel for example, tissue surrounding the retractor blades can encroach into the working channel, interfering with visualization by the surgeon and obstructing access to the location within the body. Thus, while developments in minimally invasive surgery are steps in the right direction, there remains a need for further developments in minimally invasive surgical instruments and methods.